Moisture Meter

After a winter of distressingly low heat output from my old Scandia Defiant knock-off, I bought a Mini Ligno E/D meter by Lignomat. This $115 pin type meter soon solved half the mystery -- wood not fully seasoned. Meter is stupid-easy to use, durable, two sets of pins, two wood group settings, fits in jeans or jacket pocket. I thought this made-iin-USA meter was a good bang-for-buck versus $300 pro grade models. Seems like it will last for many years.

One thing I found by measuring moisture at the exterior and ends of splits, then splitting them again and measuring the core, is that core readings are usually about 1.8 x the reading at the end grain. So I figure the average content of the wood is somewhere around 1.4 x the endgrain reading, at least for the Maple and Ash that I typically burn.

I bought this one at Harbor Freight :Moisture Meter. It was cheap enough that it if it didn't work well, I wouldn't be pissed off. Well... I feel its worth the money. I don't have any professional equipment to compare it to but it seems to be pretty accurate. When I say accurate I mean, it gives me a round about idea of how seasoned my wood is. Others on this forum have purchased the same meter and are very pleased with it as well.

I bought a cheap Sonin moisture meter last year. It's not terribly accurate, but it does a good job of telling dry from "somewhat wet" from "just cut". for firewood it's good enough. I wouldn't use it on hardwoods I'm drying for cabinet work.

Josh

I have yet to purchase a moisture meter but have been looking around at them. Another location for meters is www.benmeadows.com they have a handful that are in the $30-50 dollar range. They also have the expensive ones.

I have the JT_2G stuck it in my arm 33% 15.00 i think forget

Jags said:

Yep, same thing as HearthKB. Had it for a few years now. Works as advertised. Only complaint I had was that the cheapo chinese batteries needed replacement shortly after purchase. No biggie. This thing will not take any real abuse, but if using for firewood purposes, it does the job.

Split the log before measurement, and measure the newly exposed wood.

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I have the same meter that HKB and Jags are speaking of and have the same things to say about the device.

I see the one that HearthKB is talking about said it will even test Tea. Why do you need a meter to test Tea? Just stick your finger in it and if there is any left in the cup it will come out wet.
Don

HearthKB said:

I bought this one at Harbor Freight :Moisture Meter. It was cheap enough that it if it didn't work well, I wouldn't be pissed off. Well... I feel its worth the money. I don't have any professional equipment to compare it to but it seems to be pretty accurate. When I say accurate I mean, it gives me a round about idea of how seasoned my wood is. Others on this forum have purchased the same meter and are very pleased with it as well.

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I bought one of these 96472 meters just a week ago. Got a real good sale price of 10.99 plus a 15 percent off coupon. Final price was under 10 dollars. Works good. If it holds up for a few years, it was more than worth it. Cheaply made Chinese unit, but claimed accuracy is 1 percent, not too shabby. I like it.

Dumbfishguy said:

I have the JT_2G stuck it in my arm 33%

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Ha ha ha, you need to hydrate, Dude. Grab a Gatorade!

Hey cluttermagnet ... where did you get the coupon for the moisture meter ?
Thanks
CG711

cg711 said:

Hey cluttermagnet ... where did you get the coupon for the moisture meter ?
Thanks
CG711

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Because I gave them my home address, I get a flyer in the mail about twice a month, maybe a little less often. Sometimes the flyer has a coupon for nn percent off, usually 10-15 percent. It's good for one item only, usually. So you wait long enough and your item comes on sale at 30+ percent off, then you add in a coupon. BTW even at full retail list price of 14.99 that is not a bad little meter. I like mine.

I bought one of those yellow cheapies from HF about a month ago!It works ok,except that now im alittle disapointed that some of my wood isnt as dry as i thought :down:

How dry am I shooting for?

I think the official line is < 23%.

stanleyjohn said:

I bought one of those yellow cheapies from HF about a month ago!It works ok,except that now im alittle disapointed that some of my wood isnt as dry as i thought :down:

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Don't blame the operator, blame the tool.

I just picked one up and will be walking slowly to the woodpile to read what it has to say. I think my machine will be wrong too. lol